Comment by el_nahual

Without commenting on whether or not "black hat" is offensive, you're straw-manning the argument.

The argument isn't that "black" is offensive, but rather that it's connotation with negative things is.

To use your The Office example, it would be as if "bad" hackers were called "Mexican hat" hackers, forbidden lists "Mexican lists", etc.

(Except not, because "Mexican" only means a kind of person, whereas "black" means many things, but that's the argument being made).